Renato
Cohen, Adam
Beyer, Cari
Lekebusch
So far this year this was the party at U60 I had the most eagerly awaited -
the return of Adam Beyer to the club since his spectacular performance there
on NYE. Plus he was going to be lined up with none other than his fellow Swede
Cari Lekebusch, himself a techno heavyweight of international acclaim, and the
top newcomer of last year on the European scene, Renato Cohen from Brazil. What
raised expectations sky high for Sweden-Schranz-God
Beyer was his mediocre set at the Time Warp rave only 2 weeks before. Was he
going to redeem himself?" />

So far this year this was the party at U60 I had the most eagerly awaited -
the return of Adam Beyer to the club since his spectacular performance there
on NYE. Plus he was going to be lined up with none other than his fellow Swede
Cari Lekebusch, himself a techno heavyweight of international acclaim, and the
top newcomer of last year on the European scene, Renato Cohen from Brazil. What
raised expectations sky high for Sweden-Schranz-God
Beyer was his mediocre set at the Time Warp rave only 2 weeks before. Was he
going to redeem himself?

Well, anticipating an awesome night with techno at its finest I met with some
friends early around 10 pm. After some drinks at a groovy house bar we got to
the club right in time for the start of Renato Cohen's set at 11 pm. What a
sensational night ensued!

Renato Cohen started out with rather slow, as was to be expected,
yet high quality techno Brazilian style. Instead of taking the crowd on a journey
moving up and down he increased his pace almost imperceptibly but steadily throughout
his 3 hours. Of course, there were still some Cohen-specific climaxes when to
a massive eruption from the dance floor he played his top hit from last year,
Pontapé (which in Portuguese means 'to kick', and a kick-ass
track it is) and his new and as yet unreleased production Abelhas (Portuguese
for 'bees'). By the time he finished his set he had gotten the crowd moving
frantically and ready for a shift in gears by Adam Beyer.

And gears he shifted! He opened with a killer track right away and the crowd
loved to get their asses kicked, screaming with pleasure. The following 3 hours
saw Beyer in top form, hard as, no, harder than ever, delivering Sweden-Schranz
Beyer-style: seamless mixing, amazing effects and, of course, his characteristic
scratching wizardry. It was relentless, rock-hard techno banging beyond imagination.
However, the hallmark of his Schranz is that despite all hardness it remains
soulful, meaningful, never slipping into the mindless beats-only tour-de-force
often – IMHO - delivered by DJ Rush and some others. Indeed, this set
was reminiscent of his among participants now legendary NYE set delivered from
the very same decks. How did it ever happen that he slipped at the Time Warp
rave, where thousands of people expected nothing but the very best? Well, in
a brief chat after his set he revealed that he was too drunk to be in full control
at the time, coupled with the technical difficulty of monitor speakers placed
too far away from the DJ to allow flawless mixing. Back to the set under review:
again, here one of the highlights was the dropping of one of his recent floor
burners, Year of Reflection, a collaboration with Hendrik B. Finally,
only in his last 15 or 20 minutes he slowed down somewhat, not to make it too
hard to follow suit for Cari Lekebusch.

It turned out Cari Lekebusch didn't really need that kind of favour. His set
quickly developed into Sweden-Schranz round 2, quite distinct in style, different
from Beyer, yet no less commanding. Lekebusch clearly proved his superb mixing
and skillful use of the mixer to achieve the most amazing effects are second
only to Adam Beyer. He had no problem sending the crowd from one high point
to the next in a set that was well over 1 hour longer than those of his predecessors.
And to my delight he even dropped Adam Beyer & Hendrik B. – Where
Are We Going. The night closed out at 9:20 am with a now rather thin crowd
of die-hard schranzers.

As for the crowd, everybody seemed to be really into this music creating a
distinctly posotove vibe. Random people would just look at each other, smile
and silently or not-so-silently agree that this was the most amazing stuff they
had heard in ages, that the men behind the decks were in fact magicians.

All who were unfortunate to miss out on this night really missed out. For me,
it made missing PvD at Roxy not only bearable, but a blessing.

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